SMU gets quick ACC validation as Cal, Stanford also try to find their way in new league

DALLAS — A giddy Eric Dickerson visited the SMU locker room after the Mustangs made their Atlantic Coast Conference debut with a thumping of defending league champion Florida State.

Never mind that the Seminoles are in a shocking freefall since getting left out of the last four-team College Football Playoff with a 13-0 record last December.

The star running back of the Pony Express heyday in the 1980s wasn't going to let circumstances change the significance of the 42-16 rout, a victory that only fueled the crazy thought of SMU contending in its return to a power conference after winning the American Athletic title last year.

“He talked about we’ve been waiting for this for 30 years, this is how we used to play, and you made us proud,” coach Rhett Lashlee said of Dickerson's speech. “It’s hard to put into words in a short answer of all the things that this means to just the SMU family and everyone who’s connected to the university, past, present or will be.”

The Mustangs (4-1, 1-0 ACC) are the leaders among the three ACC newcomers, just a couple of weeks after social media was having fun with the idea of California and Stanford playing for the league title following their exit from the now-splintered Conference of Champions, also known as the Pac-12.

That was after the Cardinal beat Syracuse 26-24 on the road in their ACC debut, and the Golden Bears were still 3-0 a day before losing their inaugural Atlantic Coast game at Florida State.

Stanford has since lost handily to No. 15 Clemson, which has steadied itself and is the only ACC team at 2-0. No. 8 Miami blew out rival Florida early and was emerging as the ACC favorite before barely surviving on a seemingly too-close-to-call replay review that overturned what would have been a winning Hail Mary from Virginia Tech.

The Mustangs don't play the Hurricanes or the Tigers. They thought their first ranked opponent since joining the ACC would be Florida State, which was the preseason No. 10. Instead, it will be 22nd-ranked Louisville on Saturday. And that's the only currently ranked team on SMU's remaining schedule.

“We beat a national brand, the defending (conference) champs, in our first ever ACC game,” Lashlee said. “It’s not going to score us one point or gain us one yard next week, or the next week, or the next week. But I do think it validates that we feel like we can add value to this league.”

A long time coming

SMU's highly anticipated return to a power league brewed for more than a year, kicked to another gear when the schedule showed Florida State as the first ACC opponent. In Dallas, no less.

Lashlee has tried to say all the right things about the challenge of the new league, and the idea of contending right away was tempered by the need for a late rally to win at Nevada in the opener. Then SMU couldn't find the end zone in an 18-15 loss to BYU that ended a nine-game home winning streak.

Since then, the Cougars have reached 5-0 and are ranked 17th. The Mustangs have settled into a quarterback change, Kevin Jennings over Preston Stone.

Now SMU can settle into an ACC routine.

“We’ve been talking for 10 or 11 months,” Lashlee said. “Glad we can maybe move on from some of that. But it’s all been good.”

The California connection

There wasn't much to suggest Cal or Stanford would make much of a splash right away in the ACC. The Golden Bears have a four-year run of losing records, and the Cardinal have three consecutive 3-9 finishes.

Reality might have stepped in with Cal being Florida State's only win, which drew the ire of coach Justin Wilcox after a 14-9 loss, and Stanford's 26-point defeat at Clemson.

Then again, both programs are adjusting to the lateral move from one power conference to another. SMU, on the other hand, wandered in conference purgatory for almost 30 years before a major upgrade.

Imagine being Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza, growing up in Miami on a trio of rivalries that included two ACC teams before choosing the West Coast — and the Pac-12 — for college.

“High school Fernando would have been like, ‘Oh, I thought we were going to Yale, play in the Ivy League,’” Mendoza said when asked about his new league before the loss to Florida State. “I’m at a loss for words right now, because that’s what high school Fernando would have been, would have been at a loss for words.”

There might be others at a loss for words this weekend. ESPN's “College GameDay” will be on the Berkeley campus for a conference showdown with Miami.